


HoPPerMoM0518

by aliceoutofreality



Category: Callisto 6 (Web Series)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 18:10:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19706749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliceoutofreality/pseuds/aliceoutofreality
Summary: A series of days in Diana Hopper's life. Snapshots as the world she tried to escape starts to come crashing down around her.





	HoPPerMoM0518

There is nothing Diana enjoys more than a raid. Friends beside her, weapon in her hand, fighting and exploring and winning. The sweet taste of victory. The rush of success after 10 hours of planning and working and playing. One by one the rest of the guild log off for breaks or snacks or drinks or to sleep, and Diana logs out as well, shutting off the VR set and blinking as the dark and quiet of the apartment envelops her. Slowly, she moves into the kitchen. Gets a glass of water, looks at the time, ponders if it’s worth sleeping or if she should just get something to eat before going back to the game. 3:30am. She frowns as she looks at the empty kitchen table. There’s nothing there. No bags. No pushed back chairs. No sign her daughter has come home tonight.

She sighs and goes back to her game. Time is difficult in VR. There’s no inside light to guide you. Diana’s sleep schedule is non-existent. She falls asleep on the couch the second she unplugs the VR set, dreams of happier days and a picnic in the park. When she wakes the sun is bright in the sky outside the window and she is starving. She slowly shuffles into the kitchen, goes over to the fridge, opens it and blinks at the smell that wafts out. There’s nothing save for some rotting vegetables in the bottom tray, a tub of leftovers that have mould on them, some eggs. She closes the fridge door in confusion.

“Lindy? Honey?” Her voice echoes around the apartment. There’s no response. Slowly she looks around the kitchen. Nothing has changed from the last time she saw it. Not a whisper. Deep in her stomach something like fear and something like hunger grumbles. She orders a pizza. A buy one get one free offer, her favourite and Lindy’s favourite for when she gets home. She eats hers in the sitting room as she talks with her friends as they laugh about the weird things online like that shuttle everyone supposedly saw flying over the harbour. She’ll check in with Lindy later. She goes into the game and promptly forgets everything around her. 

The next time she comes out of the game everything aches. Diane sighs and groans and shuffles into the kitchen to get a drink. The pizza box is still on the table, unopened. When she opens it there is a cold pizza, stale and starting to smell. There is a smell coming from the fridge now, properly. The little feeling deep in her stomach solidifies. Finally, she takes the steps to Lindy’s bedroom, pushes open the door. The smell of stale air hits her as she looks at the unmade bed, the bits and pieces thrown around. There’s a layer of dust across everything. It hits Diane then. Her daughter hasn’t been home in a while. Frantically she tries to remember the last time she’d seen Lindy. Three days ago? No, that wasn’t enough time for food to rot. A week… Probably more.

Diane collapses on her daughter’s bed, staring blankly at a picture on the wall. Her daughter has been gone for a week and she hadn’t noticed. That last call she’d had with her daughter, where she’d cut her off because a raid was starting… That had been weeks ago, nearly. Her daughter had been gone for weeks and she hadn’t even noticed. Something like panic grips her chest, memories of past moments like this all alone with bad news bearing down flooding her mind. It’s not… It can’t be that bad. Lindy will be back soon. Almost frantically she plugs herself into the VR again, lets her mind slip away on solo quests and exploration.

The next time she comes back up nothing has changed. Her daughter is still gone. Something had been going on. Something had been happening: that moment with that stranger in the house, with Kylan Kraus himself coming to visit her. Lindy had been up to something and she had just ignored it. Diane chokes down a sob and thinks of what Timothy would think of her, abandoning her daughter for a fake reality until her daughter slipped away and she didn’t notice for weeks. She curls up on her daughter’s bed and clutches a pillow and cries. What else can she do?


End file.
